9 months

 We have reached 9 months and Raegan has now been out longer then she was in me!  She has changed, grown and been a lot of fun this last month.  We have enjoyed watching her continue to change and learn so much. 
She is now pulling up on a lot of things, her favorites being her brother's table and anyone who is on the ground. 
She loves to smile and smiles often, but mostly laughs for her brother. 
She is starting to show favorites too and loves to be with mommy.  If I am in the room, she wants to be with me, but she does better around other when I am gone. 
Raegan is a good sleeper and as long as we can keep her healthy (she has had a few colds as of late), she will sleep straight through the night 11-12 hours.  She isn't the greatest napper, but will usually take 2 short (1-2 hour) naps a day. 
Raegan is a talker.  She loves to make the momma sound, baba sound, dada sound and loves to screech and scream.  I love listening to her talk to herself when she first wakes up or even while she is playing.  Those little brain wheels are spinning!
She eats just about everything we give her and anything she can find on the floor.  I will often find her with pieces of grass, toys, food and even carpet in her mouth.  She loves keeping us on our toes and we are learning just how unbaby-proofed our house is!  Some of her favorite foods are sweet potatoes, carrots, pears, watermelon, grapes and cereal.  We really haven't found anything she won't eat yet.
She is now crawling although she will still switch back to scooting and even tries to do the polar bear crawl, where she will be on hands and feet.  Most often though is crawling (when I don't debilitate her by putting a dress on her) and some scooting. 
Mostly Raegan just loves to sit up and see what is going on.  She uses her feet as extra hands to play with things and it is pretty funny to watch.  We love watching this baby learn and grow and can't wait for the next 9 months.  In fact, while we were at church today and she was talking loudly and squirming all over the place, I thought 9 more months and she will go to nursery!  It's never too early to get excited right!

 

We love you Baby Girl!

Settling back into life

 Being gone for 6 weeks really makes it tough to just jump right back into life, but we were glad to be home and slowly eased back into life.

We played with friends at the pool

And we made time to play in the backyard in the water as well.

 Raegan made messes with her food.

 We spent some time at the park.

 And enjoyed dinner there.

 We did some activities

And played with (or ate) our toys.

Harrison even tried to give himself his own haircut.  I thought that was something only girls did.  At least I caught him quickly and his hair hides it well.

We went to Chick-fil-a for dinner.  We missed it while we were gone!

 And we just enjoyed being home and playing some more.

 She is starting to stand up, mostly pulling up on Harrison's table.

 A trip to the pet store when it is just too hot to play outside but we needed to get out!

 This girl does NOT take a pacifier, but she will use it as a toy to chew on sometimes.  This day though, she really seemed to be taking to it.  It didn't last!

So, that about sums up August.  And since it is the end of September, I still have plenty of more catching up to do!

Lucky #7

We made it home from our trip just in time to celebrate our own wedding anniversary.  Most days I can not believe we have been married 7 years now!  It seems like we are still so young but then I look at us and we are both done with school, living in a house we own with 2 kids and a job!  Life is good and I can't complain. 

With all the traveling we didn't want to go anywhere so Jeff took me to see the Lion King that weekend.  I have been wanting to see this play for a long time and even tried when we were in New York last year, but it didn't work out.  Well, it was worth the wait and I loved every minute.  The costumes, music, characters and atmosphere were all amazing!  And it was really fun to get dressed up and go out for a night together!

 We sat just below the drummers and right on the aisle, so some of the performers walked right by us...it was pretty awesome!

Here is to many more amazing years!

1st Day of Soccer

We have been looking for an activity to put Harrison in.  Something that I am not directly involved in but that is still an opportunity for him to learn.  We talked about Karate or a sport, but I was having a hard time finding one for him because he is still only 3.  Well, we found one and he is loving it.  He is playing with mostly 4 year olds, but he will be 4 next month and he seems to hold his own. 

Half his team are friends he already knows from church and his coach is also the mom of one of his friends, so this should be a fun experience for him.  He loved his first practice last night and we are looking forward to a fun season!

 And we were all there to see his first practice.  Daddy was getting Raegan started on the rules a little early!

 We all had a good time watching Harrison practice with his team and look forward to a great season!  Go Team Philadelphia!

1st Day of School

Harrison started his 2nd year of SPARK preschool last Tuesday, September 4, 2012.  He was very excited and was so happy to see his teachers.  He knows the ruitine, sat right down and got to work!  He can write his name, color, glue, recognizes most letters, numbers and loves to participate.  We are still working on cutting though, but I'll take it!  He is one very smart and excited little boy!  I just can't believe we still have 2 years of this before Kindergarten!  But I love my little Sunshine boy!

Chicago August 1-5, 2012

Although, we did not change locations in August, we had a lot going on and took a lot of pictures so I made it it's own post (and I don't even have the wedding photographer pictures to put in here!)
Raegan loving on her cousin Chance!

On August 1st we had Dave and Tiffany's open house at my parent's house.  It was a lot of work but all came together really well.  The weather worked out and I think everyone had a great time!

 Trouble! But I guess that is what happens when Grandma puts floating light on the pool!

 And not that this is a great picture of either of us, but I got to spend some time with one of my oldest friends.  Brittany and I have known each other since I was 4 and have been friends and kept in touch ever since.  I don't see her often,  but we are still great friends and it was fun to see her a few times when I was home.

 The guests of honor.  My little brother Dave and his wife Tiffany.

Then we took a few hours to recover from that before hosting Dillan's shower the next night.  Luckily my wonderful aunt let us do it at her house so we just brought everything and had a good time.  It is a lot of work though and  I was already wiped out by Thursday and the wedding wasn't even until Saturday!
The shower was fun though and it was fun to plan!

Then Friday started with a trip to the airport...Jeff finally was able to join us!  Then it was hurry and get back to go out for Dillan's bachlerette party.  We went and got our nails done.  There was quite a group and it was a lot of fun to sit back and relax a little.

After nails we did presents and Grandma had fun keeping Raegan entertained.

And I managed to escape a few minutes of the chaos to have a nice dinner with my family!  Harrison was so glad to have his daddy back!  And the pizza wasn't bad either!  Lou Malnoti's is my favorite and it didn't disappoint!

And at the end of the night everyone was tired!  Jeff couldn't even make it through a movie with Harrison! 

Then Saturday was the main event.  It started early with hair and makeup!  She looks good though!

And then to the temple for the ceremony.  This little girl doesn't look so bad either!

It was so hot, but the kids were good sports while they waited at the temple and then through pictures.

And he passed out on the way home from the temple.  

Then it was a quick change and to the luncheon. 

The happy, newly married couple!

I don't have any pictures from the reception but that was also a lot of fun!  We had a ring ceremony, awesome food and dancing.  It was an amazing day and I was so glad to be a part of it.  It was exhausting and someone told me I should be a wedding planner because I was all business in getting things done, but my stress level was way too high.  I think I'll stick to being a mom!  That keeps me busy enough!

Then we got up Sunday morning, I tried to pack up 5 weeks worth of our stuff from throughout my mom's still disheveled house (luckily I didn't forget too many things-just most of my own stuff!) and we headed out in our new mini van for the drive home!  We thought it would take us 17 hours but it ended up taking 19 hours.  We made it home at 6 am and luckily the kids went back to sleep (they both slept most of the night really well in their carseats) and we got a few good hours of sleep in our beds.  I didn't take many pictures of the drive (19 hours straight with 2 kids-I'm sure you can picture it in your head nicely!) but we did stop in the middle of Missouri somewhere and found this gem parked outside.  Harrison couldn't believe that Sheriff lived in Missouri!  He was more then excited to get out and pose for a picture.  Now we just have to get to California to see Lightening McQueen and the rest of the gang!

But we had a great time, saw a lot of family and friends, ate a lot of good food, did a lot of fun things and planned some amazing parties!  It was an awesome vacation, but it is so great to be home too!